Coffee cup cleanup: Corner Brook offers incentive to pick up litter

Coffee cups have been piling up in Corner Brook, and the city wants to do something about it.

"We're hoping the citizens of Corner Brook and throughout the region will be picking up disposable beverage containers throughout the city ... because it's a total mess around," Coun. Tony Buckle told CBC Radio's Corner Brook Morning Show.

Buckle is a spokesperson for Cash for Cups, a new campaign aimed at encouraging people to pick up litter that's being launched during the city's clean-up month.

We're just hoping people will clean up this beautiful city we live in.- Tony Buckle

At the end of May, people can exchange littered coffee cups at the Corner Brook Civic Centre in return for five cents — just like recycling aluminum cans or plastic bottles.

While the city will recycle all cups it can, Buckle said not all disposable containers are recyclable. 

"We have to get the people to pick up this litter because, if you look around, it's on every street in Corner Brook," he said.

To up the ante, the city is scattering four "surprise cups" around the area, worth $100 each.

The drop-off will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 27. 

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Buckle is hoping future programs will expand beyond the month of May.

"I think if we keep this program on the go in the years to come, we'll see a big difference around this city, because people will say, 'I can't throw out that cup, it's worth five cents,'" he said.

"We're just hoping people will clean up this beautiful city we live in."